crucified to us and we unto the world that is as well the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life which containes all that is in the world all which the faithful soul counts but dross and dung for the excellency of the knowledg of Christ Jesus whom as the Spouse in the Canticles she esteemes fairer than ten thousand And esteemes sin the most ugly vile eformed and abominable thing in the world pulling off its mask and vizard whereby it deceives the men of the world as it is said Rom. 7.10 Sin deceived me and thereby slew me The understanding thus inlightened ingageth all it can against sin as its enemy and sometimes by vigilancy it prevailes against all assaults of temptations whereby sin is quite excluded from entring and sometimes by flying the occasions of sin as Joseph fled from his Mistress and by the Spirit assistance we mortify the flesh God and Christ susporting Sometimes by prayer faith prevailes against the tempter the soul fearing its own weakness seeks for help of him who is able to succour and hath succoured it The last refuge which faith hath is repentance early and hearty sorrow for the sin committed as Peter when he had denied his Lord and Master immediately he went forth and wept bitterly By these means faith quenches all the fiery darts of the wicked The light of nature teacheth that the soul is borne to more noble things than to wait upon the pleasure of the senses But the supernatural life which the Apostle lived when he said I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Shews another inabling principle of life in the regenerate proceeding from that union which is betwixt Christ and his members because Christ and they are one Spirit 1 Cor. 6.10 Therefore he saith Not I because he is not the same man he was before that man is Crucified with Christ and buried with him he hath derived a new life from Christ as he expresseth I laboured more abundantly than all yet not I but Christ Christ is the spring of it the matter of it and end of it Consider the end of your conversation Jesus Christ and if Christ live in us we shall do think and speak as he did As all other graces of Gods children are sometimes weaker than they are at other times so is faith But thâ— decay of this grace is the cause of decay of many others and sometime the decay of others may cause a decay of this the Psal 51. Entituled a Psalme of David when Nathan the Prophet came unto him after he had gone in to Bathsheba the Title and the Psalme it self shew what sins and what punishments he lay under and because his sins were the cause of the loss of Gods Spirit or of the danger of it and of the loss of the joy of his salvation viz. His assurance he confesseth his sins first and prays for pardon through the multitude of Gods tender mercys then prays for washing healing cleansing and renovation Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me It followes Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation and support me with thy free Spirit This implieth that before he had it but now he had lost it and was deprived of it which was the cause of so great grief to him that he expresseth it to be the breaking of his bones Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce And the like doth every penitent broken soul feel in himself when he fears the loss of Gods holy Spirit and feels himself deprived of the joy of his salvation and this joy when it is restored is so great that it will make the broken bones rejoyce he apprehended the greatness of the joy now in the loss of it Psal I have roared for the very disquietness of my heart God deprives us of it for our sins that we may be the more careful to preserve it and fearful by sin to loose it or hazard it and to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling for though Gods lays not upon his children all that they deserve yet they shall not go unpunished Judgment shall begin at the house of God Jer. 22.24 Though Coniah the Son of Jehojakim King of Juda were the signet upon my right hand yet would I pluck thee thence Now for as much as the motions workings of the holy Spirit in the faithful people of God by inlightning them in the understanding of heavenly truths bringing to mind and applying the word of God to their comfort inabling them to converse and walk with God in holy Meditation contemplation prayer and thanksgiving making melody in their hearts to the Lord delighting them and rejoycing them in the want of all things as the Prophet Habakkuk expresseth chap. 3. Though the Fig Tree should not blossom nor fruits be in the vines c. And making them to abound with inward joy when their afflictions do most abound slighting and contemning alike both worldly joy and sorrow for the joy which they have in the Lord these are the study imployment and business of a regenerate person wherein he desires to be alwaies exercised because he cannot find satisfaction nor delight in any thing else hence he may be more truly and properly said to live by faith and by the Spirit than to live the life natural as St. Paul argues he did when he saith I am crucified with Christ yet I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God who hath loved me and given himself for me Therefore they are as it were out of their lives and void of all injoyment and comfort when they want the comforts and assistance of the Holy Spirit as Holy David did greatly resent the absence of it and fear lest it should be taken from him and that he should be cast away so do most of Gods people Isa 49.14 Sion said The Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me Though God had graven her in the palms of his hands When God hides his face and withdraws himself they are cast down as Psal I said in my prosperity I should never be cast down but thou hidest thy face and I was troubled This withdrawing of God was the very bitterest of our Saviours sufferings If this should be our condition let us not be weary of well doing but wait on the Lord for God hath said Isa 49. That he that waits on the Lord shall be like an Eagle And consider that Christ Jesus suffered the like and therefore hath a fellow feeling of our suffering that he might succour us who are tempted But if Christ doth not succour us our heart cannot indure our hands cannot be strong in the days that God shall thus deal with us as it is Ezek. 22. v. 14. But he hath bid us to call upon him
priviledges which Jesus Christ hath purchased for us Give us more assurance of the pardon of our sins and our reconciliation to God and the joy thereof Give us the peace of conscience and the Peace of God which passeth all understanding Give us the Joy which is in the Holy Ghost which we enjoy in holy duties Let us taste and rellish these sweet enjoyments with more satisfaction and joy that the excesses of our souls may be in these enjoyments and we may keep them in our mouths and hide them under our tongues as we do sweet morsels And let the enjoyment of these carry us through all difficulties Give us more confidence in our accesses to the Throne of Grace and a belief that thou art more ready to give than we to ask for thy fulness is more full than our emptiness is wanting Thy fatherly care to provide for us is more faithful and careful to do it than we to seek it though we are resolved to be alwaies begging and craving because we know we shall alwaies be wanting in this life and we will not lose our desires and thy bountiful gifts for want of asking The cause which moved thee to make such gracious invitations to us and such great and precious promises of grace and mercy was only in thy self for thou invitest the thirsty to buy Wine and Wilk without mony or price What then is there that we can buy it with that is neither mony nor price it can be nothing but to exchange our thirst for the thing which we thirst for to relieve it to open our mouths Therefore as the cause which moved thee to make these invitations and promises was in thy self Lord seek in thy self the cause which may move thee to perform them The qualifications of thirst want and need we have and shall have as long as we have any life But if we be dead in trespasses and sins quicken thou us because thou only canst do it by thy holy Spirit In the assurance of thy free mercy then whereof thou by thy free promises hast convinced us and by the performance of the chiefest of them hast fully satisfied us inable us to assure our souls of thy readiness and willingness to hear and help us through the merits of Christ Jesus and in assurance thereof to come boldly and with confidence to the Throne of Grace And give us sure evidence of our interest in all other priviledges That our joy may be full assure us that our place of defence is the munition of Rocks That bread be given us and our water shall be sure Bless us and make us a blessing Let showers of blessings come down upon thy people Give us to lay hold of Christ for only Wisdom our only sufficient Righteousness our Sanctification and Redemption Tread Satan under our feet that we may bruise his head as often as he goeth about to sting our heel Destroy his works Let the Spirit of the Lord set up his standard against him And let not Antichrist any more deceive the Nations but destroy thou him and the Whore which is drunk with the blood of Saints Succour those that are tempted Be with thy people in the fiery Tryal that is to come upon all the world to try them as thou wast with Joseph in the prison Lord let not our sins stand as a cloud to hinder these our prayers from ascending to thee or cause thee to turn away thine ear For though they are so many that we scarce know how to confess them yet thou hast pardoned as great sinners as we when they turned unto thee and it is usual with thee to seek thy lost sheep and to receive thy returning Prodigals Lord thy free promises and importunate invitations by thy self and thy Son give us this boldness of access to thee for thereby we are assured that thou art more desirous to give than we to receive Hear us therefore through the merits of thy Beloved Son our Eternal High Priest in whom only we hope to prevail with thee in whom thy Promises are Yea and Amen And accept us in him who hath purchased this Access for us in whom we trust that he now intercedeth for us whilst we are praying to thee And that he persumes and presents these our supplications at the Throne of Grace To whom with Thee and thy blessed Spirit of Grace be all honour praise and glory Eternally Amen Enter not into Judgment with us O Lord for our best services for in thy sight shall no flesh living be justified A shorter Prayer for daily use LOrd draw nigh unto me now that I draw nigh unto thee for thy promise sake for thy mercy sake and for Christ Jesus sake And assist me with thy Spirit that I may pray unto thee in the Spirit and in Faith believing that thou art more ready to give than we to ask or receive thy graces and thy mercies Lord relieve me according to all my needs and according to thy infinite goodness and according to thy gracious promises and invitations Relieve my spiritual blindness with that eye-salve which thou hast invited the blind to come unto thee for Relieve my spiritual nakedness with that fine white linnen which thou hast invited the naked to seek of thee and cloath me with humility patience temperance chastity and charity and every grace Relieve my spiritual poverty with that fine gold which will enrich our souls to eternity and make me rich in good works Relieve my spiritual hunger and thirst with the bread of life and the water of life so that I may never hunger or thirst after any thing else And make me more hungry and thirsty for thee and thy grace and more sensible of my needs Lord I pray not for my self alone but for me and mine and all the Israel of the Lord. Let my seed be a seed unto thee and all that shall come of them to the end of the world Remember the entail of thy blessings to us and to our seed for a thousand generations Let the Kingdoms of the world become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ Let holiness to the Lord be writ upon all our common things Make us all to know thee from the greatest to the least Let us need no more to teach one another saying Know the Lord. Let us all be taught of God and let us hear the sweet voice behind us saying This is the way walk ye in it when we turn to the right hand or to the left and make Jerusalem a praise Love us freely pardon us and heal us Subdue our iniquities and cast our sins into the bottom of the Sea that they may never rise up against us Give us new hearts Put thy Laws into our hearts and write them in our inward parts Be thou our God and make us thy people Put thy Spirit into us and cause us to walk in thy Statutes and to know thy Judgments and do them Cause us to love thee with
them for their sins 't is said They hearkned not because the Lord would destroy them Therefore it appeares that it was a toaken of Gods Fatherly love to David that he punished him for his sin that he might repent of them and not lye in them and die in them But whom God suffers to run on in sin without any crosses and afflictions rebukes and chastisements they are none of his children Another reason why God afflicts his children is to take their hearts from off the love of the world that we may use the world as if we used it not Jer. 45. I bring evil upon all flesh and seekest thou great things If any one loveth the world the love of the Father is not in him But when we are in prosperity we say as holy David did Psal 30. Tush I shall never be cast down but it followeth Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled he then sees his weakness and vanity and too much security which he expressed in his prosperity the Lord was pleased to withdraw the light of his countenance that he might not set his affections upon the world nor rejoice in the things of the world but in the enjoiment of God and live upon that Thirdly consider that God doth suffer his people to be afflicted for the exercise of their graces as he did Jobs patience hope faith spiritual fortitude and his other graces Job 13.15 Though the Lord should kill me yet would I trust in him said he in his affliction James 1.23 Count it all joy when you fall into temptation Knowing that the tryal of your faith worketh patience Solomon said Chasten thy Son and thou shalt have comfort of him so doth our heavenly Father so that to the faithful afflictions should be cause of joy because they are the means of grace The worst creature that ever was will oftentimes make as great a show as the best in prosperity silver is tried in the fire consider God never laid any thing upon his children but he gave them strength to suffer it or did mitigate the pain He staieth his rough wind in the day of the east wind Isa 27. Psal 94.12 Blesis the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest him in thy law 13. That thou maiest give him patience in time of adversity until the pit be digged up for the ungodly Rejoice in the Lord ye righteous c. My joy shall be in the Lord though the fig tree should not blossom c. yet would I rejoid in the Lord. No chastning for the present seems joyous but grievous nevertheless afterwards it yeilds the peaceable fruits of Righteousness as David testifieth Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I have learned the judgments of thy mouth That is he learned the practising of them for though he knew them he went a stray and by affliction was reclam'd Psa 'T is good for me that I have been afflicted Meditation LORD let it be thy will to perfect my graces by my afflictions and to purify and refine me of all my corruptions as silver is refined in the fire for if I still feel pride and envy wrath scorn and contempt of my meaner brethren in my heart or be inclined to revile such as have fallen I may justly fear that though thou hast removed one judgment from me yet thou wilt bring another greater upon me and if I will not be thereby humbled and taught to bear with the infirmities of my brethren so as to pitty restore and help them thou mayest justly heap more and more plagues upon me and mine till thou hast destroyed me And since thou hast said that the same measure that we meet to others shall be measured to us again Teach me that I may forbear all distastful words and scornful behaviour and all passion and censure towards others that are under me though but my Servants least those who are above me or under me should requite me with the like If thou sufferest me to be railed at and reviled as thy Servant David was often and as all holy men of God and Saints have been and must expect to be let me not look upon the persons so railing but receive it as from God as he did saying if the Lord hath said to Shimei curse David who shall say why hast thou done so So let him curse for who can tell but the Lord will requite good for his railing and so the Lord did requite it and let me learn not to judge others by what they suffer but consider the bitter mockings which the Disciples of Christ underwent as the Lord had foretold them but chiefely let us consider what contradiction of sinners our blessed Lord and Saviour underwent lest we faint in our minds and be weary And let us learn thereby to speak evil of no man though most highly provoked no not in our passion lest we seem to disbelieve or contemn the blessing pronounced upon such sufferers Meditation IN their Affliction they will seek me early When by Affliction we are deprived of all worldly comfort then we will seek it in God therefore it is necessary for some people to be alwaies afflicted and I may be one of them Heb. 12.10 11. They viz. our parents Chastened us for their pleasure but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness Now no chastening for the present seemeth joyous but grievous nevertheless afterwards it yeldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby So that the end of Gods Afflicting us is to improve our faith patience holiness and other graces and he will make these means efual Isa 26.9 Meditation O My soul let not lying lips slanders backbitings nor false accusations provoke thee to let loose the reins to revenge and wrath but rather give place to injuries lest thou justifiest the Sons of Zerviah saying let us cut off this dogs head and condemnest holy David And thou mayest hope for the like requital if thou do accordingly but thou hadst rather that the Lord would keep thee secretly in his Tabernacle from strife of tongue Another end why God afflicts his people is to make them like to Christ as it is 2 Tim. 2.12 For if we be dead with him we shall also live with him If we suffer with him we shall also reign with him If we deny him he also will deny us and Rom. 8.17 Joynt heirs with Christ If so be we suffer with him we shall also be glorified with him we are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world They suffer with him who suffer innocently The third end is the trial of faith as the St. Peter 6.7 Though now ye are in heaviness if need be through manifold temptations 7 v. That the trial of your faith being much more precious than Gold though it be tried in the fire might be found unto praise and honour and glory c. So they try our love too Meditation O
let the Children of Life learn this Wisdom of the Children of the World for our most wise Authour of our Salvation hath taught them so to do Do thou fly sin as they fly poverty and shame seek understanding and the knowledge of God as the World seek Silver and search for her as they search for hid Treasures Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God Prov. 2.4 5. Let it not suffice thee to seek him by night in thy bed whom thy Soul desireth But rise and go about the City enquire for him of the Watchmen and of all that can probably make any discoveries of him charge them if they find him to manisest him to thee cry after knowledge lift up thy voice for anderstauding as well in thy private prayers to God as in thy eager pursuit after it in such places as it is to be found in Where thou sowest sparingly thou dost make expectation of reaping sparingly or else thou may'st be ashamed of thy sparing But a far more sordid and shameful thing it is to be sparing of thy cost and pains when thou sowest for Glory Immortality and Eternal Life and hast God and Jesus Christ engaged for thy satisfaction Thou needest not to fear to part with all thou hast to purchase this precious Pearl that is invaluable the Kingdom of Heaven and the Crown of Righteousness that never fadeth since there is no hazard of spoliation nor any of Anticipation or prevention or for uncertainty as St. Paul argues on his own behalf touching his running fighting and striving for all that use the same means must attain it certainly Be zealous against sin as he was that vexed his Soul with the unclean conversation of the wicked but beware of zeal for God against God such as Pauls was before his conversion If every vertuous action affordeth satisfaction to him that atchieveth it then the more strenuous he is in doing it the more perfect it will be and the more satisfaction it will yield Lord let this cure the Green-sickness of my Soul Meditat. Psal 34.4 I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me out of all my sear A preparatory Ejaculation Lord if Christ Jesus our head thy dear Son suffer with us then deliver us we beseech thee for Christ's sake for why should he be afflicted A Prayer In extremity of sickness and peril of Death O thou that art the Father of the fatherless the comfort of the comfortless the helper in all needs the healer of all sickness the succourer in all wants the ease in all pains the calm in all storms the composer of all perturbations the asswager of all grief the deliverer from all dangers the refuge from all fears stand by me now and save me as thou hast promised and let me see Heaven opened to receive me and the Angels ready to convey my Soul into Abraham's bosom And thou blessed Jesus who art mighty to save and hast finished the work of our Redemption alone and subdued all our enemies draw nigh to us in the time of our sickness when Man's help is vain when our bodily pains are so many and great in every part of our body that no part can relieve the other The mind being altogether unable to fix upon any inward solace whereby to sustain and bear up it self put forth thy Almighty power to succour me be my comforter and conquer death for me and keep away Satan and all his Temptations A Meditation upon peril of Death If Croesus when taken prisoner by Cyprus and sentenced to be burned upon the instant when he expected his execution was exceedingly rejoyced by calling to mind the wise sayings of Solon and was willing to die Shall not I much more rejoyce in death and be willing to change this unconstant transitory life for the joyes of Heaven when I call to mind the comfortable words of my Saviour and the never-fading joy which he hath assured me of in the world to come Med. 2. LORD I have had such a great delight in the sweet conversation of some of thy Saints and Servants departed this life that I have desired to be dissolved that I might be with them shall I not much more desire to be dissolved to be with Christ the Lord whose sweetness infinitely surpasseth the Sons of men Meditations in my sickness Med. 1. Dost thou pass the tedious nights of thy sickness in restlesness and Dolours Let it not greatly trouble thee if thou spendest those restless hours in holy Meditation for those Meditations are a sweet savour to God and service wherein he delighteth and God draweth nigh to thee to instruct and teach thee in his ways and thou drawest nigh to God to learn his righteous Judgements and to delight thy Soul in him And better it is that thou shouldest want thy rest than God to be without such services or thou without thy Spiritual comfort Med 2. As every step of our journy to Heaven is beset with Temptation so it is with tribulation of necessary consequence therefore expect it and not halcion days of tranquility the expectation of them will make them more easy to be born Med. 3. If thy temporal losses are the cause of inward and spiritual gaines and improvements to thee in thy graces and thou hast found them so formerly then are they still no cause of grief And do thou O Lord make thy Servant amends for the want of temporal comforts with the affluence of Spiritual Med. 4. If the time of sickness or Affliction be the time and season of the comforts of the comforts of the Holy Ghost and not prospetiry This is to be chosen and embraced rather than that Moses made this choice And thy allurements to the contrary cannot be compared to his which he dispised Med. 5. All Afflictions are either from God or for God if from God they are the chastisements of a merciful Father for our good if for God they are our glory Philip. 1.29 For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe in him but also to suffer for his sake Consider then that they work for us not against us and what they work for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 4.17 No Tongue can express the greatness of the eternal glory which they work for us nor any hyperbole upon hyperbole for being borne with love and child like submission they endear us more to God and kindle and inflame his love towards us Consider them in themselves they are but light and for a moment for before v. 8. He saith We are troubled on every side perplexed v. 9. Persecuted cast down yet neither distressed nor in dispare nor forsaken nor destroyed which words fully express both their heaviness and their lightness and concludes with their lightness And he makes a double end or final cause of these Afflictions grace and glory for in the next verse v. 10. He saith Always bearing about in our
errours misdoings and mistakes ignorances and follies as procure to Men shame fear grief guilt and the Wrath of God due to sin Though meritoriously Christ only can deliver us yet he hath injoyned these operations of his Spirit as the means to make us Subjects capable of his merit And though it be said that while we were sinners he died for us and he justifieth the ungodly yet he doth not justifie ungodliness but they are changed by the renewing of the Spirit in the new Birth in all their faculties namely in the Judgement Will and affections whereby they are first enlightned to understand the principles of Christ's Doctrine and do believe and do resolve to practise the same as it is commanded resigning and submitting our wills to his who hath made us and redeemed us all which operations of the Spirit do excite joy in the Soul of the Regenerate viz. first it rejoyceth in knowing the truth and the good will of God and every particular discovery thereof rejoyceth the Soul but chiefly it rejoyceth to find Grace in it self and a conformity to that will of God and every degree of Grace in it self and in others rejoyce it for we find the Apostles rejoycing in the Graces which they found in others but they grieve at sin stirring in themselves and others King Solomon was sufficiently accomplished for his design in the pursuit of finding out the thing that was profitable What would give rest What would afford satisfaction What delight he could find in any thing What improvement he could make of knowledge But he did not nor could attain thereby with all his labour and industry any thing but to find out the vanity of all things below and so to fill himself with vexation restlesness much grief and encrease of sorrow Eccles c. 1. If so then we must account him no wise Man who takes any worldly thing for his contentment satisfaction repose profit commodity joy or delight but he is truly wise who can both discern the madness vanity unprofitableness restlesness vexation nausiousness and trouble with which these worldly things fill vex and disquiet and dissatisfie vain Man and seeks his joy comfort pleasure fruition content satisfaction and happiness in things more certain more lasting more excellent more spiritual Thus far also Philosophy went and hath defined happiness to be the operation of the Soul according to perfect virtue in a life that is perfect And what those virtues are Natures light hath shewed the knowledge of God and the worshipping him accordingly they defined to be happiness and virtue for thither tend all moral virtues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But what Nature could not find out God hath revealed viz. The Gospel of our blessed Saviour which was first made known by Angels to the Shepherds and by this Gospel or good tydings we are taught That happiness is To know God and Christ This is Life Eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Now if these operations of the Soul according to perfect virtue proceed from the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Saviour as they must if it be in the perfect life which is in Heaven then the Philosophers happiness is the same with a Christians for their graces proceed from this knowledge as it is said by David they that know thy Name will put their trust in thee they that know God to be All-sufficient will walk before him in perfection they that have tasted how gracious the Lord is and that he is a God hearing Prayer will come unto him this life is begun here from whence this certain conclusion may be drawn that there is happiness joy satisfaction and all sweetness of Life and enjoyment in the Soul that hath continual motions of Grace and none of sin or vanity quod quaerimus The Immense greatness of this Joy is not to be expressed Therefore the Apostle calls it Joy unspeakable and glorious 1 Pet. 1.8 but to prove the immensity of it we must consider the cause which is Infinite Eternal and Almighty such as the cause is the effect must needs be The assurance of God's love and favour in Christ Jesus for our Eternal happiness hereafter for our security and preservation here for our deliverance from all the evills of sin and the punishments due to it which coming into the Soul though but by a little glimpse ravisheth the Soul with infinite joy when God sheweth the light of his countenance and smiles if I may so express it or looks pleasant upon the Soul that thirsteth after him in this Land of barrenness It is satisfied When God owns thee by hearing thy Prayers and puts forth his Almighty Power at thy request for thy succour whereby thou knowest thou hast an Almighty power for thy assistance great is thy joy Especially because thou hast earnest thereby for the future that he will never leave thee nor forsake thee so that no time limits thy joy nor no degree of enioyment because the matter and cause is the infinite power and infinite goodness of God and the duration of it to Eternity and this enjoyment doth begin here when we know our interest that Christ is ours our Attonement our Passeover slain for us as a sacrifice for our sins our Reconciliation and Peace-maker our Redeemer who hath bought us Our Mediator our High Priest our King our Food our Bridegroom our Head our Life our Way our Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption the Hymenaeans of these holy Nuptials and the Song of the Lamb are everlasting When God doth assure us by his Spirit that we are reconciled to him through Christ and we are confident of his Almighty power and goodness ready always to succour us as his Children his Beloved his People his Portion and his Flock and that all things are his and whatever is his we have an interest in it as we have in him by reason of our Relation to him in Christ When we know Christ and God in him and are known by him and behold as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord and are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory being renewed after the Image of him that made us and when the Spirit of Grace and Glory rests upon us 1 Pet. 4.14 When the glorious Majesty of the Lord is upon us when we can serve him in the beauty of Holiness What do we want but to see him Face to Face whom now we see in a Glass And to have that in perfection which now is but in part and to have our vile bodies like his glorious body Of the Eating and Drinking the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist When our blessed Saviour plainly tells us that the words which he speaks are Spirit Why should I not understand a Spiritual meaning in those of this mystery namely a Spiritual eating of his body and drinking his Blood To as many as received him he gave Power and Priviledge to